Următorul mare dezastru în materie de sănătate din China #chinanecenzurata

Chinese pharmaceuticals have recently been called out for alarming side effects, one of which may include a growing distrust in China's authorities. Welcome to China Uncensored. I'm Chris Chappell. Just a reminder that we're in Operation Honeypot Phase 2. Remember to watch this video to the end and leave a like and honeypot comment. Earlier this month, Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu tragically passed away while on vacation with her family in Japan. Also known as Big Ass, Hsu was blasted into stardom in East Asia after starring in the 2001 hit Taiwanese TV series Meteor Garden. So naturally, news of her death sent shockwaves across the entire region. This was made worse by the fact that she was only 48 and died from pneumonia triggered by a bout of influenza, which is not very common for someone her age. On the other hand, Hsu was known for struggling with poor health and had previously suffered complications from other seasonal infections. And at the same time, it probably didn't help that she was vacationing near the small Japanese town of Okoni, where there is little access to sophisticated medical facilities. So of course, Chinese state-run media took the opportunity to take shots at the Japanese health system, including the spearhead of journalistic virtue, the Global Times. Global Times reported that Hsu's death had sparked a discussion in China about Japan's flu outbreak, saying that a strong flu outbreak had caused some medical institutions and pharmacies to experience shortages of treatment medications, and that some people believe that some facilities overordered, leading to an imbalance in inventory. In preparation for the next outbreak, the government is being urged to take measures. Of course, that stands in sharp contrast to China's medical system, which is top-notch and even won a public health award from the World Health Organization in 2023, which was a totally legitimate response to how successful China was at combating COVID. Here's a WHO official on that. If I had COVID-19, I'd want to be treated in China. Remember when I was calling it the CCP virus? We can go back to that. Still, while Chinese media were busy pointing the finger at Japanese healthcare, they somehow managed to miss the growing healthcare scandal much closer to home. In January, a growing number of leading Chinese medical professionals began to raise strong concerns about domestically produced drugs in China. They cited alarming experiences with local brands, involving anesthesia that doesn't make people go to sleep. They could have just read Xi Jinping Thought if they wanted to knock people out. Or have people criticize Xi Jinping. That's a great way to get knocked out. There was also blood pressure medication that doesn't lower blood pressure. And laxatives that did not get the job done. I guess because being full of crap is so integral to the CCP. Domestically produced generic drugs make up the vast majority of medicine available at China's public hospitals, which in turn accounts for about 70% of China's drug market, and more than 80% of the country's inpatient admissions. So naturally, the drug issues highlighted by the doctors drew a lot of attention and caused widespread consternation, which their laxatives couldn't help fix. At the same time, those examples were added to years of stories from patients who experienced limited effects and strange side effects from domestic drugs. Wait, what if the CCP is the way it is because of terrible side effects? Oh wait, no, these are all features of communism, not side effects. The whole thing only got worse when medical experts weighed in. After looking closely at publicly available pharmaceutical data, Dr. Xia Jiumin at Hangzhou Hospital took to social media to expose how the trial data of some generic locally produced drugs were almost completely identical to the data from the original drugs they were reproducing. No two drug trials are ever identical. And no two sets of data should ever be identical, so this indicates that the Chinese drug companies simply copy and pasted their data from foreign companies' trials rather than, you know, doing their own trials on their own medications. Others soon followed Xia's example and found that the data on many other domestically made generic drugs had, in one form or another, identical data sets with the original medications. This sparked accusations of widespread drug fraud, and posed a scary situation for the millions of Chinese people that rely on their domestic brands. As the scandal was unfolding, a group of more than 20 doctors and officials put their names on a proposal to the government that would allow patients who depend on the public system to get access to original brand name drugs rather than Chinese generics. Which, by the way, do you know how terrible you have to be for pharmaceutical companies to seem like the heroes in a story? There's just one problem. Such drugs have been largely pushed out of public health care in China since 2018, when the central government implemented a new policy that encourages fierce competition between drug makers that want to supply China's public hospitals. The policy has worked as intended, sharply driving down drug prices. Because in the process, foreign pharmaceutical companies have largely surrendered the field to Chinese manufacturers that are willing to sell their drugs at rock bottom prices. It would seem you get what you pay for, and China is paying the price. According to health care expert Helen Chen, there have long been concerns that cutting the price of drugs will lead to manufacturers cutting corners, and in her words, now there are some public voices saying it is happening. Indeed there are, Helen. One of them underscored the problem with an example from the world of eye drops. Bad eye drops, eh? I know the CCP wants to blind their citizen, but I always thought it was figurative, not literal. Writing on the Chinese Q&A platform Zhehu, the person expressed doubts about the antibacterial properties of a domestic brand of Chinese eye drops, adding that just the feeling of dropping it into the eye, many patients have reported burning and stinging sensations. I guess I shouldn't be surprised communists don't see an issue with a solution that causes more problems than it solves. But the drug is almost one-tenth of the price of the Japanese brand that is commonly used on that front, making it even cheaper than a bottle of mineral water, and thus saving the Chinese state a lot of money. So while you're gouging your eyes out just to make the burning stop, just think of how much more painful it would be if the government had to pay a couple bucks more. With the scandal threatening to turn into a full-blown crisis of confidence in the Chinese public hospitals and the pharmaceutical industry, the National Healthcare Regulator soon announced that it would look into the matter. Assuming they didn't use those eye drops and can still look at things. Just a few weeks later, in early February, the regulator finished its work and concluded that its investigation into quality concerns had found them to be unsubstantiated, and that perceptions that generic drugs such as anesthetics and laxatives were less effective arose from subjective feelings. You know, the subjective feeling of waking up in the middle of surgery. Quit screaming, you contrarian. On top of that, posts like those written by Hangzhou Hospital's Xia Jiumin, which had raised alarms, were thoroughly scrubbed from the Chinese internet. And the data on Chinese generic drugs that had been used to compare drug trials was blocked from public access. So, case closed and trust restored. Yeah, no. Several online commenters expressed dissatisfaction with the authorities' handling of the scandal, with one internet user writing in a WeChat blog post that if there's no problem with all the information, why is it not allowed to download it? In the blog post, which is appropriately titled History Rhymes, the author drew parallels between the generic medication scandal and a cooking oil contamination scandal that sparked headlines in China and beyond back in July. That one damaged trust in the enforcement of food safety standards when it was revealed that fuel tankers had been used to transport cooking oil after carrying toxic chemicals without being cleaned properly between loads. As if fried food wasn't already bad enough for you. That scandal was in turn similar to another product safety issue that was thrown into the spotlight by a post on Xiaohongshu or Red Note. In November, a woman that had recently bought sanitary pads found them almost 4 centimeters shorter than advertised. Now that might not sound like a big deal, but it sparked a wave of amateur investigations that turned up evidence of factories using used shredded pads and diapers to make new sanitary products. It also spurred Chinese consumers to start posting lists of numerous well-known Chinese brands whose pads have reportedly contained maggots, mold, and other contaminants. Such contaminated pads, often sold cheaply on e-commerce platforms, have been linked to pelvic inflammation and other gynecological problems. As a result, many have advised Chinese women to stay away from cheap domestic brands. Unfortunately, as is the case with domestic drugs, many financially struggling Chinese don't have much choice but to go for the cheaper options and hope for the best. And just as with the generic medication scandal, posts and comments about the unsanitary sanitary pads and the contaminated cooking oil were quickly removed and censored by the authorities. Don't worry, everything is fine. Obviously, scandals surrounding lack of safety for consumers are far from purely a Chinese problem. But there are just one or two problems with the formula the CCP uses for handling such situations. It goes something like this. Step 1. Censor public discussions and close off access to public information if there is any. If no one can talk about it publicly, it didn't happen. Step 2. The authorities vow to carry out an investigation of the matter behind closed doors. It eventually concludes that either nothing is wrong, so carry on, or that the scandal is a result of a few bad apples who are then rounded up and purged, or punished, or both. Step 3. Implement new rules, with government officials assuring everyone that everything is good now. Step 4. Potentially launch an anti-corruption campaign, as the CCP did, for the Chinese health industry in 2023. Another classic tool used by the Chinese government to clean up, despite such campaigns, dubious track record. Only then, after all those steps, it all happens again. I'd say it's like a bad dream you can't wake up from, but they know they're awake since the anesthetic still doesn't work. Problem is, from the moment the authorities crack down on public discussions until they deliver their finished verdict, the whole process is a closed government affair, with their transparency ending at, trust me, bro. This isn't exactly a recipe for restoring public trust in the sectors and the regulators involved, as there is little way of knowing what's going on behind closed doors, and what measures are actually going to be prioritized going forward to ensure the safety of Chinese consumers. To make matters worse, public faith in the government is shaky as it is. After government credibility took a massive hit following the authorities' draconian and somehow WHO award-winning COVID, I mean, CCP virus measures. Made worse by the difficult economic times that came in their wake. Doesn't help that Chinese public authorities and regulators ultimately don't serve the public, they serve the Chinese Communist Party. Part of that feature, not side effect I mentioned. Sure, it's not fun being a government agency or a company that's embroiled in a massive public scandal, but in the end, it's the CCP's leadership decision that can make or break you in China, whether you're a former Chinese leader or an entire industry. And for the CCP leadership, contaminated sanitary pads and fraudulent drugs are minor hiccups in a broader success story about Chinese companies taking over from foreign companies, and saving the state billions in medical costs in the process. However, as the CCP has assured us all many times before, they are here first and foremost to serve the Chinese people. That's why I'm super confident that the next time a generic Chinese drug with sketchy data is ready for the domestic market, the Chinese leadership will come forth and be the first ones to test it out in a display of their unwavering faith in China's award-winning healthcare. And that's the kind of surgical satire you won't get anywhere else. Hence why we can't let YouTube kill the show with their suppression. And the only way we have to fight it is Operation Honeypot Phase 2. So, PerilousPenguin, thanks for taking part in Phase 2. OneSeskly, I'm glad you're seeing me in your recommendations again. Thank you for trusting me, Ellie Curious. Glad I'm back in your feed, too. SaviorMZ, thanks for watching the show since 2012. 2012! Spicy white mustard. Never let YouTube hide my episodes. Never back down. Sarah Patch, I also remember when China Uncensored would get over a million views on our episodes. The last time that happened was December 2023. But if we're going to get a million views on an episode, Operation Honeypot still has work to do. Remember to click on China Uncensored videos in your recommended feed. Watch my videos until the end and leave a like and a honeypot comment. And if you can support us beyond Operation Honeypot, please join our premium website at ChinaUncensored.tv. We do exclusive episodes and live streams there, too. We wouldn't have been able to get through the past few months without you. So thank you to all of our subscribers. If you can't subscribe right now, thank you for supporting Operation Honeypot. I'm Chris Chappell. Go out and pot that honey.